Wednesday, January 19

Naroditsky a Finalist for ChessCafe Book of the Year

Thanks to my former student Alan Naroditsky for sharing this article on Facebook.

(15 year old FM Daniel Naroditsky at left is the sole author of the book at right.)

As some of you may know, my brother Daniel is the U12 World Youth Chess Champion (2007) and just recently attained the highly-coveted International Chess Master title. Very few people in the world have achieved as much as my brother has, and he's only 15! In March of 2010, his first book, "Mastering Positional Chess" was published by New In Chess, one of the world's largest chess publishers. It has been extremely popular among chess enthusiasts, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews, and after a first round of voting, has been selected as one of three finalists for the ChessCafe Book of the Year.

Out of three finalists, the book that receives the most e-mail nominations by January 31st will be named Book of the Year. If you would like to support my brother, please send an e-mail to bookoftheyear@chesscafe.com with the following text:

"I would like to vote for Daniel Naroditsky's book, "Mastering Positional Chess" for ChessCafe's Book of the Year."

This award is extremely prestigious, and your help is greatly appreciated!!

Addendum from fpawn:I had the pleasure of teaching both Alan and Daniel. Of course, Daniel is far too good for me now with a USCF rating hovering just below 2500. His book is brilliant! If you haven't bought a copy, I highly recommend it. Please also send an email to ChessCafe. Somehow, Daniel reached the final three and squares off against two big names in the chess world: GM Yasser Seirawan and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. We definitely must support our Daniel as much as we can!

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About the Blog

Check here for tournament reports and the latest chess news from Michael "fpawn" Aigner. Find out where fpawn has played recently. Emphasis on:1. fpawn's students and friends,2. Northern California chess events,3. national or international chess news (especially involving local players).Say hi when you surf in, but please keep comments clean and sign your name.

Who Is Fpawn

Mr. Aigner remains an active chess tournament player, coach and community supporter in Northern California. He refuses to surrender to little munchkins trying to eat his rating points. He firmly believes that chess teachers should practice what they preach, even if that means competing head-to-head against students and their peers. In that spirit, he aspires to reaching 2300 again after several years at or near the 2200 floor.